How would you like to attend a pop-up food event that doesn’t include happy hour craft cocktails or beer, a hefty dinner seat charge, or having to call a rideshare service afterward to avoid driving while under the influence?
Think bicycling to work and starting the workday in the company of interesting people, all enjoying a little downtown sidewalk time and a warm breakfast waffle topped with fresh fruit and organic maple syrup.
A small team of architects from Lake/Flato cooked up the new event that holds promise to spread through the urban core as more people experience the healthy community breakfast and join in with their own sidewalk gatherings.
It’s called Bike4Breakfast, and the day starts with leaving the car at home, riding your bike, taking the bus or walking to work, and rewarding that effort with good company and a delicious waffle breakfast. The first such event was held May 15 on National Ride Your Bike to Work Day. Three more pop-up breakfasts have occurred since then, one each month. The fifth monthly Bike4Breakfast will be held Friday, Sept. 26, from 8-9:15 a.m. outside the Lake/Flato offices at 311 Third St.
Credit three of the firm’s architects, veteran 21-year partner Matt Morris, and one-year recruits Michael Britt and Corey Squire – all committed cyclists – with creating the event.
“Michael and I were on a morning workout ride heading south through the Missions, and we had been talking to Corey, and we just decided, ‘We ought to cook waffles,’” Morris said. “We all love waffles. We’re architects and waffles are sort of architectural. They have a grid, they’re structural…”
Britt, a St. Louis transplant to San Antonio, said the idea grew out of his time living and working in San Francisco.
“The city has the San Francisco Bike Coalition, which has a very active membership and advocates for progressive cycling policies there,” Britt said. “Once a year, they have a free cookies and coffee event. We need a strong cycling coalition in San Antonio to work with the city, and we thought waffles were better than cookies and a good start.”
Squire said Lake/Flato embarked in May on a one-year effort to gain LEED EBOM (Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance) status for its downtown period brick building and the firm’s 80-person staff. The rating recognizes sustainability practices in existing buildings and businesses.
“Fifteen of the 100 points are based on alternative transportation usage by the building’s workforce,” Squire said. “75% of the staff has to come to work via alternative transportation to earn all 15 points. We’re at 65% participation, which is worth 12 points.”
The Lake/Flato garage and a small outdoor space together include around 45 parking spaces for a staff of 80. The building’s basement looks like a high-end used bike shop with a few dozen road bikes parked amid boxes of construction documents, architectural plans, hand-crafted models and other artifacts from the firm’s 30 years in business. Two showers were added to make biking to work possible even in the hot summer months.
Squire, a New Orleans native, said he used to pick up that essential San Antonio morning staple – breakfast tacos – for his colleagues attending weekly sustainability meetings “because they are so cheap.”
But tacos, heavy in saturated fats and salt, are synonymous with the city’s weight problem.
“Buying the ingredients for fresh waffles, fresh fruit, and organic maple syrup, all from Central Market, is cheaper than buying breakfast tacos and a lot healthier,” Squire said.
And a far more original idea. A photo of an empty Lake/Flato garage on a Bike4Breakfast day illustrates the growing popularity of the event (see photo below). Dozens of the firm’s employees are participating now, and for the third event, the first outsiders were invited, including the Third Street Grackles cycling team, which includes many Lake/Flato architects, and Overland Partners, the architecture firm that recently relocated its offices from Alamo Heights to 203 E. Jones Ave. at the corner of Broadway Street.
“If people can just get over that psychological hurdle and ride their bike to work just once, they’ll experience a breakthrough,” Britt said. “If we can get other offices to do this, either in rotation, or everyone doing it at the same time on the same morning, it could become something really special.”
“Lecturing people to get out of their cars isn’t any fun, but this event is fun,” Morris said. “All of this happened while we were going 17 miles per hour on our bikes. The big ideas always come while we’re on the bike.”
The Rivard Report missed the July Bike4Breakfast, but we attended the August event and it felt like we were witnessing something new, something organic, and something unique to San Antonio and not imported from another city.
Bikes were everywhere on the sidewalk, parked under trees and along the building facade. Small clusters of people patiently waited while Morris, Britt, Squire, and their colleague Casey Nelson, Lake/Flato’s “office vegan,” watched over three waffle makers. As some finished breakfast, others arrived. The Bike4Breakfast organizers looked like they had matters firmly in hand.
“We got the recipe down by the second event, and now we make the batter the night before,” Squire said. Adding yeast, he said, makes for lighter waffles. Serving tables and bike racks are hauled up from the basement to the sidewalk, and a canopy tent is erected, although the morning I attended, the sidewalk sat in the shade of the building and no one seemed to have broken a sweat pedaling to work at that hour.
“We did have a little drama the morning of the third Bike4Breakfast,” Morris said. “Corey got stuck in the elevator coming up from the basement and we finally had to call the fire department for help.”
Four fire trucks and a Hazmat vehicle arrived at the scene, and after 20 minutes Squire was freed and able to rejoin the event after first posing with his rescuers.
Not everyone in the firm has joined in, and organizers say you have to at least ride a bike around the block to qualify for a waffle plate.
“Some people come to work in their cars and walk right by us on the sidewalk without making eye contact or saying anything,” Squire said. “We jokingly call it the ‘Walk of Shame’ but we want everyone to participate and enjoy the event. It’s a great way to bring a space to life that sits empty most of the time.”
Morris said Bike4Breakfast has allowed people within the firm that don’t often connect to get to know one another better.
“We’re stratified in this office – especially those of us on the third floor – so it’s been a great way to get to know one another better,” he said.
Interested in riding your bike to work and attending the Sept. 26 Bike4Breakfast? If you’ve read this story, you’re invited. Please give the organizers advance warning if you’re coming by posting a comment here with your name and professional affiliation. That way no one will be turned away without a tasty waffle.
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Cool idea but let’s not forget many people use their cars to transport kids to/from school and activities. Many use their car to take elderly parents to doctor’s appointments. Others use their car for sales appointments or for work itself (eg construction, hauling, etc.).
Not to mention the humidity is killer. Who wants to show up at a professional environment having ridden their bike 30 minutes in this heat?
At Geekdom we have lots of members that bike to work every day. We have one member that bikes from Brooks City Base almost every day. We have a wall of bike racks and a shower so members can carry on with their day feeling fresh!
https://www.facebook.com/GeekdomSA/photos/pb.303302389696720.-2207520000.1410407796./887568251270128/?type=3&theater
Lake/Flato is really hoping Geekdom members have an appetite for waffles on Sept. 26. Hope you lead the troops over — on bikes or on foot. No cars, not even electric ones. –RR
Laura is right. I’m about to walk out the door and ride my bike to work, but when I’m wearing a suit in this weather, not happening. And I’m only a ten minute ride away from work.
Would love to ride to work – getting in exercise for the day, but TOO DANGEROUS because of drivers too focused on getting ahead of the driver in front – weaving in and out, speeding AND STILL USING CELL PHONES while driving.
Suellen
I live, work and ride my bike downtown all the time and do not have trouble.
I think what people need to do if they want bike riding a norm is to quit making events and just do it…Two, psychological hurdle? San Antonio is not a bike friendly town….I mean I remember a couple of times we had to change our route in our own neighborhood because people weren’t liking that though it didn’t take us that long to ride through it … 7pm at night (hardly any traffic) they didn’t want anything to interrupt their traffic flow…LOL…or how one time i was on Broadway I followed a kid on his bike because the truck behind him kept edging behind him trying to scare him off his bike… its more than a hurdle…. People should do it more often and not on certain days or for events..when you make it mainly for just events people will say okay…I will be aware for this…rather than if it was something often, then hey… its part of the routine people just have to get over…especially for around downtown..it can be done…
I ride to work from mulberry/broadway to blossom area, so it can be done. The only hurdle is if your place has a shower, which ours has 2 pretty nice ones.
I leave clothes, all necessary shower/bathroom things at work and I’m set.
I feel great when I get here and feel energized through the day
I use to ride
my bike all around SA as a kid.
If you can cycle to work and be comfortable afterwards sure fine by all means do it.
I dont think bicycling reaching the levels the Chinese were as a means of transportation will happen even in bike friendly cities. It will mostly remain a recreation.
A lot of good comments. It can not be easy to ride a bike to work. It can not be easy to ride a motorcycle to work. Some drivers are distracted and have a hard time driving themselves safely much less watching out for others. I’ve almost been hit quite a few times in my Mini Cooper. Riding a bike to work can not be safe. So what can be done to make it safer?
A business with a shower is a nice amenity. You can even get LEED points when building a new office.
A business could have a company car that could be used during the day for bike riders to use for company business.
My wife and I ride the greenways. The Salado Creek Greenway goes from 1604 to 410 without facing having to face traffic (other than some Strava speedster) The Salado and Leon Creek Greenways are a great way to move around SA without worrying about cars. It’s a start. There are plans for San Pedro Creek downtown and Elmondorf Lake that will make those areas bikeable.
I have a friend that lives in the 1604/Blanco area and works at Port San Antonio. Several time a week he rides his bike to Northstar Mall and catches a bus to the south side of downtown then rides his bike the rest of the way. Combining bike and public transportation is a good option.
If you want to ride a bike to work there are ways to do it.
If we have a city bike to work day and it gets broadcast on TV, radio and internet that for One Day those typical distracted drivers will pay attention and see bikers, recognize them and in the future, look out for bikers. It can’t hurt.
Safe Riding!
San Antonio needs more bicycle parking. Cool and fun idea.
I ride to work EVERYDAY, it’s not hard. It only takes 5 minutes of planning to pack my work clothes, lunch, and gadgets for the day. I look forward to the waffles!
Biking – Good! But high carb, refined wheat Waffles smothered in syrup healthier than eggs in a breakfast taco? NOT! Sugar in any form, organic or not, is not healthier than protein.
I can’t ride my bike on 281…I live too far away from work to bike there…
Great idea, I’ll be there! I ride my bike by around that time anyway.
Radiology Technologist At the Nix Hospital
Definitely will try this!
I transport my daughter to/from school by bike (or on foot while she rides her scooter) and she loves it! I took her to the last Bike4Breakfast with me in the bike cart.
Thank you guys for the hospitality! I would love to join you. International Relations Specialist at the City of San Antonio.
See you soon…
We would be honored, Martha. We might have to coordinate with Geekdom, City of San Antonio and others and lead a cycling peleton from Main Plaza to Lake/Flato. Where is Dr. Thomas Schlenker in all this?
Hi Bob! I’ve got another live one from CoSA who will be joining us tomorrow. Love to lead a peleton from Main Plaza, but he’ll be coming (14 miles) from the northside and I’ll be coming (3 miles) from the southside. We’ll meet you at L/F.
Looking forward to it!
Unless something has changed, the pop-up breakfast is Friday, not tomorrow. –RR
Oops, Friday, I mean. My days are running together…
Biking is definitely not an option for me. It takes me 15 – 20 minutes to DRIVE to work, and that’s mostly up I-35.
what a great invitation! i plan to come for waffle breakfast on Sept 26th on my e-bike. Then go back up the road to Woodlawn Ave to work.
Planning to be there! Just moved to SA to work more closely with the city and citizens as a bicycle advocate. Will be inviting people to come volunteer at our booth at Siclovia Sept. 28 to help educate the public about ways to get involved in making the city better for biking and walking.
see you tomorrow, Jack.
Breakfast bike day is one of my favorite days. I’ve done it in other cities and it helps create a sense of community among those who work in similar areas, enjoying biking, and just want to gather for breakfast together. While biking is not always an option or ideal for all people, this is one of many ways to create biking awareness and cheer!
Thank you for the hospitality LF! It was a pleasure meeting everyone, I hope to see you all soon!